May tried to overcome this split by calling the snap general election, hoping to win a bigger majority and strengthen the government’s hand in EU negotiations.

Instead May came out weaker, plunging the Tories further into crisis.

Johnson hoped to challenge her by positioning himself as a “godfather of Brexit,” as one “friend” told the Financial Times newspaper this week. Several top ministers hinted strongly that May should sack Johnson.

One right wing magazine columnist reported that Tories at the conference were uniting around the slogan, “Jihad on Johnson”.

But many Tory conference delegates—as well as the Sun and Times newspapers—backed Johnson. And May couldn’t deny he was “unsackable”.

In a sign of how rattled and desperate the Tories have become, Hammond spent a large chunk of his conference speech on Monday having to defend capitalism. “We have to explain why and how the market economy works,” he said.

But that wasn’t enough to convince the Tories’ big business backers. Caroline Fairbairn, head of the bosses’ CBI group, said the speech showed “a government strong on diagnosis, but weak on action”.

The severity of the Tory crisis is shown by their traditional backers attacking them.

We have to seize on their weakness to get rid of the whole Tory rabble.

Tens of thousands join march to end seven years of Tory austerity

Anger and defiance at the Tories on the streets of Manchester (Pic: Neil Terry)

Chants of, “Tories out—Corbyn in” rang out in Manchester on Sunday. Tens of thousands of protesters joined the People’s Assembly demonstration outside the Tory party conference.

The demonstration brought together anger against all of the Tories’ attacks.

Retired teacher Denise told Socialist Worker, “What you see now is zero hours, reduced pension and a housing shortage.

“We’re here to try and get a better life for our children and grandchildren.”

There was a large turnout from health workers in the Unison union, who are fighting the Tories’ 1 percent public sector pay cap.

Jan, a Unison member and nurse from Sefton in Merseyside, told Socialist Worker, “I take home less in wages now than I did in 2015. Staff are demoralised, but they are also willing to fight.”

Alison, a UCU rep at a college in Huddersfield, agreed. “I would support a strike over the pay cap,” she told Socialist Worker.

“We need to protest because things are getting harder and the students are getting less support.”

And she also said the Tories would raise the income threshold from which graduates have to start paying back loans to £25,000 a year.

But this is only for people who began university in 2012.

For people who started their studies before that the threshold is much lower at £17,775.

And the threshold hasn’t risen for five years. This means that May’s new one doesn’t keep up with inflation.

May’s announcement backfired. It drew attention to the high levels of student debt and the low income at which they have to be paid back.

And many people contrasted May’s plans with Jeremy Corbyn’s promises to abolish fees entirely.

Benefits cruelty and chaos

Tory work and pensions minister David Gauke has come under fire from his own MPs over the shambolic rollout of the new Universal Credit (UC) benefit.

UC is part of the Tories’ welfare “reforms” that have devastated many people’s lives. UC makes it easier to cut and sanction claimants by merging six benefits into one.

They include jobseeker’s allowance, income support and housing benefit.

People newly claiming UC have to wait six weeks before receiving their first payment.

And the rollout has been dogged by errors in the payment system

Some 42 percent of families in arrears getting UC said it was due to the waiting time, payments being delayed or stopped, or errors in the system.

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